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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26547802">You Were Never Here</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurae/pseuds/Aurae'>Aurae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Darkest Night 2020, Everything Hurts, Force Ghost(s), M/M, Pining, Sad, Unrequited</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:54:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26547802</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurae/pseuds/Aurae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Keep it safe for me,” he says. “I was never here.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You were never here,” Lor agrees easily.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>It’s so easy for him to agree. After all, it was never anything less than the truth.</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Luke Skywalker/Lor San Tekka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Darkest Night 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You Were Never Here</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/draculard/gifts">draculard</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Keep it safe for me,” he says. “I was never here.”</p><p>“You were never here,” Lor agrees easily.</p><p>It’s so easy for him to agree. After all, it was never anything less than the truth.</p><p>***</p><p>Lor San Tekka has always believed in the Force. He has always believed in the Jedi.</p><p>In his boyhood, the Jedi had stood strong against the dark legions of tyranny and chaos threatening the galaxy. Lor had kept the faith even after their ancient temple burned and their members hunted down and destroyed. Their doctrines suppressed. It hadn’t been easy. Lor’s faith had been tested many times, but he’d passed those tests and continued spreading his message of hope: One day the Empire would be broken beneath the unbearable weight of its own evil, and from its ruins the sacred monastic order would rise anew.</p><p>And so it had come to pass. Lor was among the first to pledge his fealty and his life—or what remained of it, given that Lor was no longer a man in his prime—to the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker.</p><p>Luke was more powerful, more beautiful, and more <em>perfect</em> than Lor could ever have imagined. No one deserved Lor’s loyalty and love more. He was the embodiment of the hope and the promise of the future, and the Force shone from within him like the dazzling light of twin suns. Lor was drawn to that light. He worshipped it. He worshipped <em>him</em>. He had never seen anyone so magnificent.</p><p>But Luke, for his part, seemed not to truly see Lor.</p><p>“The Jedi may be dead, but the dead are never truly gone,” Lor told Luke. He flushed, imagining the rare artifacts they might discover, the archaeological expeditions they might mount, and aaahhh, yes, sweet, sweet fantasies—the days and weeks and months in the field, alone together, that they might share… “The Jedi have left traces of their passing,” he continued, collecting himself, striving for professionalism. “Temple ruins, monuments, sacred sites, <em>archives</em>. I can help restore them all to you.”</p><p>“Thank you, Lor. That would be wonderful. I…hmm.” Luke’s gaze drifting off to the side, like the sight of something or some<em>one</em> had caught his attention unexpectedly and distracted him. He was acting like his mind was elsewhere. And whatever it was he saw, it caused his lips curled upwards in a faint, enigmatic smile.</p><p>Yet, when Lor tried to follow the direction of Luke’s gaze, he didn’t see anything. His eyes insisted that there was nothing there.</p><p>Alas, his eyes were deceiving him.</p><p>Lor couldn’t see them, that was true, but Luke could. “They are always here with me, Lor,” he said. “All of the Jedi.”</p><p>“Are they ghosts?” Lor asked, nonplussed.</p><p>“In a manner of speaking.”</p><p>***</p><p>How does one court a man who never goes unaccompanied? Who walks with one foot in the present and the other in the past? It proved impossible, and after awhile, Lor gave up on trying.</p><p>Huddled beneath his blankets during one of Jakku’s cold desert nights, Lor clutches Luke’s final parting gift to his breast and wishes things could have been different. They were together for years, but they were never <em>together</em>, not really, not as Lor would have desired. The ghosts made certain of that. And now that Luke well and truly isn’t here, not even as a ghost himself, Lor is left to bear his burden alone.</p><p>“You were never here,” he says to the empty air of his hut and weeps.</p><p> </p><p>END</p>
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